These days I often find myself in the lively area of Eminönü in Istanbul.
With its colourful array of inviting stalls and small shops bursting with produce, going there is always an experience and I love it!
Because I am there so regularly, I feel very in tune with the seasonal changes on the fish front.
We’ve had the explosion of palamut or bonito and now we’re seeing the appearance of the bluefish or lüfer, another firm favourite here.
This is another migratory fish which is now swimming down from the Black Sea via the Marmara to the Aegean after spawning over the summer months.
It is an important fish for Turkey and major lüfer fisheries exist all along the Turkish coast. It’s at its best in January and starts its seasonal migration northwards again in spring.
However there is an issue of over-fishing which last year led the government to issue a size limit on commercially caught lüfer from 14cm to 20cm.
Predictably enough this caused an uproar among Istanbul fishermen but it is a fact that numbers are declining and sustainability is an issue that has to be addressed.
This is just a bit of background to this most delicious of fish sometimes called the King of Fish here.
You can see from these pictures that the fish markets in Karaköy are simply bursting with three of the four sizes. The words olta balıgı mean caught by rod ie not commercially.
Traditionally lüfer is left whole and grilled, or baked in the oven which is exactly what I did.
It’s completely different in texture to the bonito with light not dense flesh, not at all heavy or oily – a real treat for fishlovers!
- Simply buy one freshly cleaned and gutted fish per person.
- Place on your lightly oiled oven tray (you can line it with foil to make washing up easier if you like) or in an ovenproof dish.
- Drizzle with a little olive oil and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper.
- Add some lemon slices and bay leaves, plus some tomato halves also seasoned if you like cooked tomatoes.
- Cook in an oven pre-heated to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 for about 25 minutes or till done (depends on size).
- Serve each fish topped with the lemon slices.
- Garnish with the bay leaves, slices of red onion and rocket leaves or a green salad. Add the tomato halves on the side.
We had a mixed salad and homemade chips and it was a really delicious meal!
My latest thing is shaving carrots and cucumbers. I drizzled this with olive oil and pomegranate molasses/nar ekşisi.
i love blue fish! i make a special chowder with it.
Do you get it? How interesting! I wasn't sure how far bluefish could be found….
It turns out that we're out on Burgazada for a week and everyday, a little stand sells fresh caught fish. Your recipe comes at exactly the right time. Thanks.
So glad to hear that! How is Burgazada at this time of year? We look forward to meeting up with you very soon ….
Claudia, we're so excited because we bought our (sarıkanat) lüfer right down at the pier, made your recipe and it was awesome. We made the chips too. We try to stay away from them because of the calories but Turkish potatoes are so scrumptious and your photo was so tempting, we gave in and had a real fish and chips feast.
Hi! We feel the same way about chips – not a daily occurrence I must say so even more delicious when we DO have them!
That looks really good! I love fish left whole and baked.
Hi Meeling! Yes,fish like this is really good :)))
Hmmm, not sure if lüfer makes it as far down as the fish markets of Fethiye but then they do have a habit of changing the names of some of the fish around these parts – Fethiye has its own dialect. We're off to the fish market later for some hamsi so I'll have a look to see if there's any of the variations you mentioned.
Glad to see something's being done about the fishing. I know the fishermen need to make a living but they also need to be able to actually fish some fish from the waters!
They need to think ahead a bit: like, will there be any fish left to fish if we go on like this?
I'll be interested to hear if you see the different sizes of lüfer! Maybe they haven't swum down that far yet??
Merhaba Claudia : ) lovely looking seasonal fish, please enjoy those expeditions to Eminonu for me too, love it there, so vibrant! How funny that I have a fish recipe this week too, and gladly gave a link to your wonderful, seasonal post on fish at my blogpost, if you'd like to have a look: )
xx Ozlem
Hi dear Özlem! Yes! I saw your lovely post and then the link to my blog! Much appreciated! I added a comment :))
Just an update. Got back from Fethiye fish market and they have Çinekop on there today…30 TL per kilo. A bit different to Istanbul prices but then we have to pay the travel fee, too. Our hamsi comes from the northern shores (obviously) and is never as silver and fresh as you see up there but more expensive. We're paying 7 TL a kilo at the moment. Interesting. 🙂
Thanks for this info, Julia! How is your fish market? Is it big? We are lucky here, the fish is really tempting esp at this time of year.
Our fish market is pretty big, yes. We also have a few fishermen who sell directly from their boats, early in the mornings, before they take it to market. Hamsi and çineokop and the like is transported down from your neck of the woods (hence why it's a bit more expensive). Our locally caught staple fish are bass and bream, octopus and squid, amongst others.
I love looking at all the strange types of fish at the markets in Turkey . The cooked fish looks good too. I have passed the Addictive Blogger Award on to you,you have to blog about why you blog and can copy the award from my blog. No pressure on accepting it.
What a fabulous market!! I love whole baked fish but so often over here the fish is already cut into fillets – this is gorgeous, I'm getting so hungry just looking!
Mary x